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Activity report 2020 – 2021

A year rich with new projects is coming to an end! The EcoCharge network of 100 fast-charging stations to facilitate the transition to electric cars across Quebec was unveiled to the public and the inauguration of the first stations in service began. For the first edition of the EcoHack-a-city initiative, Earth Day Canada partnered with the cities of Moncton, Ottawa, Laval, North Vancouver and Calgary to mobilize change makers who are creatively addressing the environmental challenges facing Canadian municipalities. Finally, the Switch to Renewable website dedicated to renewable energy in Canada was launched in partnership with Budweiser!

Mission

April 22

Earth Day Everyday Celebration
I Take Care of the Planet
Calendar of activities
Ceremonial Planting
Tree Planting Relay
Earth Day T-Shirt
Municipalities Mobilizing

The first annual Earth Day Everyday Celebration, under the Honorary Presidency of Eli Browne, Director of Corporate Sustainability at Sobeys Inc., took place on June 10th, 2021. Through an evening of cocktails and comedy, our guests were able to relax at home and enjoy the show, all while supporting our organization. Guests were sent make-your-own cocktail kits and were joined by two local Toronto comedians and a local Toronto bartender. Thank you to all who attended and to our Event Partners and Sponsors for helping create a successful inaugural event!


Due to the COVID-19 situation, Earth Day Canada was unable to hold a large public rally this year. Therefore, the organization launched a major campaign on its website with the theme "Take Care of the Planet" to raise awareness among Canadians about the urgency of taking action for the environment and to encourage them to take concrete action to take care of the planet on a daily basis with the hashtag #TakeCareofthePlanet. The enthusiasm was there, acting as a reminder of how we can inspire those around us.


Schools, institutions, businesses and citizens celebrate Earth Day, April 22, by organizing environmental activities that appear on our online calendar. Clean-ups, plantings, composting activities, eco-tours and exhibits are examples of the activities organized each year. This year, more than 160 activities were posted on our calendar across Canada and other countries, highlighting everyone's mobilization and initiatives for the good of the environment.

  2017 2018 2019 2020
Number of activities registered 354 490 335 200
*Starting in 2017, this contest combined Earth Day programs that highlight environmental initiatives and actions, including Cultivez le Jour de la Terre and Jour de la Terre à l’école.

Each year in celebration of April 22, Earth Day invites its spokespersons, partners and friends to plant trees in honor of Earth Day. This year, Bonnie Crombie, Mayor of Mississauga and municipal spokesperson for the Earth Day 2021 campaign, symbolically planted a tree to kick off the annual Municipal Planting Relay and Earth Day celebrations!


On April 22, 2021, Earth Day Canada launched the second annual Tree Planting Relay. 14 Municipalities have already pledged their commitment to plant at least 50 trees in honour of Earth Day and 4 of those municipalities shared inspiring videos of their tree planting projects during our 2021 Earth Day Celebration.

Despite set-backs and delays due to Covid restrictions, the final total for the first annual Tree Planting Relay in 2020-2021, was 18 municipalities that pledged to plant 1155 trees. The Relay allows Earth Day Canada to showcase municipal efforts to strengthen the Canadian urban tree canopy.


Each year, an Earth Day t-shirt is designed in collaboration with a local brand to support the greening of Quebec and Canada. Thanks to this funding, trees will be planted across the country as part of the Tree Planting Relay. The 2021 edition of the Earth Day t-shirt, 100% made in Canada, is signed by Le Cartel.

  2018 2019 2020 2021
Number of trees planted 241 285 600 480

 


We’re thrilled to announce that 115 municipal partners joined our second annual Earth Day Municipalities Mobilizing Campaign. This strength in numbers of local governments committing to actions for a sustainable future is a great beacon for all!

Participating Municipalities shared our Earth Day campaign, organized events, and continue to be key partners in raising awareness of the need to step up and do our part in protecting and restoring the environment.



Every Day

Fonds Éco IGA
Food fight
Distribution of eco-friendly items
Waste management
Action/Reduction®
Zero Waste Challenge – Business
EcoCharge
Transition Wow
EcoHackacity
Aiming for Action
Tomorrow’s Forest
Support projects
Call2Recycle campaigns

The Fonds Éco IGA was created in 2008 by IGA grocery stores in Quebec and drives sustainable development in Quebec communities. It provides financing for concrete, sustainable projects that reflect local realities and that aim to protect, conserve and respect the environment.

To date, the Fonds Éco IGA has financed more than 2,500 projects throughout the province. Since its launch, it has awarded $1 million per year to various environmental initiatives.


Since 2015, the Food Fight program, carried out in partnership with the Fonds Éco IGA, has held free educational workshops for people across Quebec and New Brunswick to provide them with simple, practical advice to help fight food waste. It’s also a community of mutual support that exchanges information, including blog posts written by our experts, and resources to help people improve their daily practices.

Offered virtually for a second year, AVF offered 91 conferences to organizations and 50 to the general public, for a total of 149 in nearly one hundred cities. That's 3,373 people who are now equipped to fight food waste at home. An additional 161 people were able to attend a zero waste cooking class.

  2018 2019 2020 2021
Number of participants to the Food fight program 2398 2885 3626 3534

 


The Fonds Éco IGA and Earth Day Canada are joining forces to deploy a squad reaching out to citizens of Quebec and New Brunswick to raise awareness and help them reduce their carbon footprint. By distributing eco-friendly products at an accessible price, households will be able to take sustainability into their own hands.

This year, 6063 kits were distributed in 225 stores. Consisting of products 100% Quebec-made, it included a total of 6 items: 2 fabric dish covers, 1 food storage bag, 2 reusable absorbent towels, 1 washable sponge


Since 2013, IGA grocers have benefited from a personalized consulting service that helps them to optimize waste management in their stores. Earth Day’s team of advisors have been making their way across Quebec and New Brunswick to meet with IGA grocers. Every store can benefit from personalized support from an advisor who will monitor their continuous improvement process.

  2018 2019 2020 2021
Percentage of materials generated that are recycled, composted or recovered at Tour CIBC Charles-Bruneau 94 93 - 90

 


Action/Reduction® is a tailored support service that encourages organizations to practice better waste management. While adapting to the realities of public or private organizations, the program provides personalized support to help reduce the percentage of waste sent to landfill or for incineration by reducing waste at its source and recovering it through composting or recycling.

Some businesses in the Rosemont-La-Petite-Patrie borough (Zero Waste Challenge - Businesses), as well as all IGA stores in Quebec and New Brunswick, benefit from this support from Earth Day Canada. To highlight their efforts, businesses can obtain the Action Reduction® certification.

  2018 2019 2020 2021
Number of IGA stores supported 238 150 290 293
Number of IGA stores certified Action Reduction® 124 170 213 225
Certified IGA stores that divert at least 60% of their waste from landfill - - 41 43
Certified IGA stores that divert at least 70% of their waste from landfill - - 41 42
Certified IGA stores that divert at least 80% of their waste from landfill - - 32 28
Number of businesses supported in Rosemont-La-Petite-Patrie - - - 127
Number of businesses certified Action Reduction® in Rosemont-La-Petite-Patrie - - - 40

 


Launched in 2020 in partnership with Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie, the Zero Waste Challenge - Business aims to offer support to businesses in the neighbourhood with a desire to commit to an eco-responsible approach and to reduce their waste at the source. The objective is to raise awareness and to help volunteering businesses optimize their waste management practices, reduce their waste at the source and implement eco-responsible actions. During its first edition, 127 businesses were supported by Earth Day, 40 of which obtained their Action/Reduction certification. A second edition of this project is currently underway.


EcoCharge is a new network of fast-charging stations (EVSE) that are accessible and adapted to the electric vehicles of today and tomorrow. This network, supported by Earth Day and in collaboration with the Fonds Éco IGA, is made possible thanks to a grant from Natural Resources Canada, as well as financial partners, Fondaction and Investissement Québec.

This first phase of EcoCharge will result in the installation and commissioning of 100 EVSEs - among the fastest on the market, and "scalable" - in 50 IGAs across Quebec and New Brunswick. The goal is to raise consumer awareness of sustainable mobility and the electrification of transportation by making their lives easier, as the EcoCharge will allow them to do their grocery shopping at IGA, the time it takes to recharge.

To date:
10 locations in service
40 under construction
50 to be commissioned by summer 2022


Launched in 2020, the Transition Wow program acquires and converts cargo vans to electric in order to help companies and municipalities electrify their fleets of vehicles.

Objective: to facilitate and accelerate the energy transition in the light truck industry in order to help reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from Quebec’s transportation sector.

To date, five vehicles have been electrified through the program.


The EcoHack-a-city Initiative is a series of events offered across different regions of Canada where municipalities, businesses and not-for-profits come together to address environmental issues Canadian municipalities face. Each event is composed of a public panel event inviting the members of the public to learn about local environmental issues concerning municipalities and an online learning-by-doing training program that brings together municipal actors and representatives from business and civic society to find original solutions to an environmental challenge experienced by our cities.

For its first edition in 2021, we held events in the participating cities Moncton, Ottawa, Laval, North Vancouver, Calgary and Halifax and were able to engage 67 local stakeholders through the training and reached out to 316 people through the public panels.

  Public Panel Attendees Training Attendees
Moncton 45 14
Ottawa 87 12
Laval 41 10
North Vancouver 42 9
Calgary 71 12
Halifax 30 10

 


In collaboration with ENvironnement JEUnesse, EcoSchools Canada and Quantum, Earth Day introduced the Aiming for Action program, which celebrates environmental commitment from young people aged between 14 and 30. The program showcases their green initiatives, which serve their communities and all of Canada. Each year, the program rewards one individual who truly stood out through his or her valuable environmental efforts and achievements. Earth Day awards the winner a grant of $2,000 and $1,000 worth of computer equipment to pursue his or her projects.

  2018 2019 2020 2021
Applicants 11 23 40 26
Winners Vincent Boisclair Rodrigue Turgeon Amélie Drainville Isabelle Béliveau

Tomorrow's Forest Quebec is the first operational project of the Tomorrow's Forest program, a collaboration between Earth Day and the Cowboys Fringant Foundation. The power of the project is in its capacity to bring together communities, environmentalists and artists in a common mission to improve the resilience of the forest and the health of Quebecers. The Tomorrow's Forest Quebec program will make it possible to plant nearly 200 trees during the year 2021 in the Quebec capital.


Earth Day Canada recognizes that partnering with corporations, governments, other non-profits and groups is crucial to our success. We endeavour to put into place mutually beneficial partnerships that result in programs and events to increase Canadians’ collective understanding of environmental issues and reduce environmental impact.

This year, the collaboration and commitment of our partners has created some amazing results. Some highlights of our year include; In partnership with FondsEco IGA our Action/Reduction program has grown to certify over 220 IGA stores in Quebec, our partners at TD Ready Commitment have provided us with the resources to host Eco-Hacks in 5 Canadian cities with an aim solve localized environmental issues, together with Budweiser we launched the switchtorenewable.ca website to assist individuals, businesses and municipalities across Canada in making the switch to renewable energy and we have been able to launch the first ever non-profit owned electric vehicle charging station network thanks to partners like EcoCharge, ChargePoint and EcoTank.


Since 2013, Earth Day and Call2Recycle have collaborated on numerous activities to raise awareness on recycling batteries and recover used batteries in Quebec.

This year, our collaborative work resulted in several communication initiatives that were coordinated by Earth Day: a focus on recycling batteries as part of the actions highlighted during the 2021 campaign; a call to action via a post on social media and in our Special Earth Day Newsletter.



Our communications

Under the theme of everyday actions that have an impact on the environment, the Earth Day 2021 campaign encouraged people to take action and change their habits.

 

 

Number of times that Earth Day’s message was read, seen or heard
200 871 800+
Interviews and news reports on Earth Day 87
Value of Earth Day’s advertising campaign 198 959 $
Number of activities on the calendar over the year 69
Calendar page views 5446

 
Followers 23415 9583 5219 1004 2157 77 943
Posts 530 530 330 12 70 70
  earthday.ca
Users 86 352
Sessions 112 349
Pages visited 195 498
Average time spent on the page (min.) 01 : 36
Sessions during the campaign 0

Organization

Earth Day (April 22) is an international environmental celebration created in 1970. Tous les Jours | Earth Day Canada is the organization that coordinates the celebrations on April 22nd, in addition to a multitude of environmental programs and projects that take place throughout the year in Canada.

These days, corporations increasingly perceive Earth Day as a means to increase their profits by marketing their products as being environmentally friendly. To counteract the exploitation of Earth Day for commercial ends, the ownership of the Earth Day trademark was transferred from Earth Day International to Earth Day Canada in 1993, so that the latter could make sure to retain the true substance of its original mission in Canada.

Therefore, Earth Day is a registered trademark in Canada and Earth Day Canada holds a copyright on the phrases “Earth Day” and “Jour de la Terre”.

A WORD FROM THE CHAIRMAN

      "Initiatives are underway across the country and Earth Day Canada is proud to contribute to this momentum through our media campaign and year-round programs! I am particularly pleased to see the commitment of a significant number of cities, real engines of change and places of choice for citizen action, in the second edition of the Municipalities Mobilizing initiative! It is by taking action in our communities that we will lead the ecological transition in Canada."
  • Thomas Mulcair, Chairman of the Board of Directors

A WORD FROM THE SPOKESPERSON

    "It's time for action! I am delighted to see the commitment of citizens who have taken individual and collective action for the good of our planet despite the pandemic. Share your personal initiatives to inspire change! Earth Day is 365 days a year!"
  • Édith Cochrane, Spokesperson of Earth Day Canada

Team

Pierre Lussier - President | Valérie Mallamo - Executive Director | Catherine La Branche Chabot - Human Resources Director | Yves Gauthier - Executive Assistant | Ahmed Rabhi - Accounting Technician | Kristin Mullin - Development Director | April Scholz - Development Officer | Étienne Beauchemin - Development Officer Intern | Katherine Forster - Canadian Outreach Officer | Léo Cressatti - Communication Director | Myriam Charconnet - Communication Officer | Alice Debiolles - Communication Officer | Elysya Scerbo-Pasta - Communication Officer | Maxime Dannel - Webmaster  | Karoline Bessette-Simard - Programs Director | Carolyn Dolan - Waste Management Coordinator | Mélissa Aumont-Rodrigue - Advisor - Waste Management | Siham Kadour - Advisor - Waste Management  | Arthur Lamoine - Advisor - Waste Management | Félix Taburiaux - Advisor - Waste Management | Kim Méthot - Coordinator - Eco-friendly Products Distribution Project | Mathieu Côté - Logistics Manager | Bérangère Ferrand - Project Manager - Transport and Mobility | Camille Defoly - Conference Coordinator | Camille Dussault - Speaker - Food fight! | Julien Kuzdzal - Construction Coordinator | Mathilde Messersi - Project Manager - Waste Management Development | Elise Karcher - Advisor - Waste Management and Speaker | Emilie Fargeout - EcoHack-a-city Program Coordinator

A thank-you goes out to those who have left:

Alexandre Fichon - Development Director | Alexandra Wilson - Development Manager, National Outreach | Thiaba Ndeye Sène - Waste Management Coordinator | Marie Legivre - Advisor - Waste Management |

Board of Directors

Thomas Mulcair - Chairman, Politician | Pierre Lussier - Vice-President, President of Earth Day | Jake Haskell - Trésorier, Manager – Stratégie et Transactions chez EY-PARTHENON | Stephan Pinheiro - Director, President of HumanIT | Mac 911 | Carolina Gallo - Director, Vice President, Public Affairs and Corporate Communications, ABB | Jacques Delsaut - Director, Consultant with the Chairman of the Adecco Group | Caroline Lejeune - Director, Marketing Director of the Missioneo Group |  Jean-Marc Vasse - Director, General Delegate of Val'hor and Mayor of Terre-de-Caux | Virginie Cousineau - Director, Director of Public Affairs, Réseaux Express Métropolitain | Nathalie Boyer - Director, General Delegate of Orée | Alain Dumas - Director, Consultant in Public Relations | Reid Bodley - Director, Manager, Waste and Resource Conservation, CN

A thank-you goes out to those who have left:

Jocelyn Lajoie - Treasurer, Internal Audit Director, Gaz Métro | Michel Séguin - Secretary, Guy Bernier Chair in Cooperation at UQAM | Carolina Gallo - Director, Vice President, Public Affairs and Corporate Communications, ABB |

Special thanks

Earth Day would like to thank the thousands of Canadians who took concrete actions for the environment on April 22 and every day.

Another thank you goes out to all of the museums, libraries, cultural centres, schools and municipalities who celebrated Earth Day in their communities.

Thanks to the scientific committee for the Tomorrow’s Forest program: Marel Darveau, Jérôme Dupras, Alison Munson, Jean-Claude Ruel and Éric Verreault.

Thank you to the Fonds Éco IGA team:
- Félix Taburiaux
- Claire Cuche
- Jean-François Péloquin
- Henry Hervey
- Pierre Ulysse Faisant
- Brendan Tallon
- Amélie Dechelette
- Myriam Larouche
- Nour El Imène Naila

Thank you Camille Defoly, Louis-Philippe Potvin, Elise Karcher, Camille Dussault and Stéphanie Tremblay, the food waste experts for the Food Fight program.

Thank you to Earth Day’s outstanding spokesperson, Édith Cochrane.

Thanks to our treasured partners. Through your actions, you are helping Canada to become a more environmentally conscious and respectful society.

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Email: hello@earthday.ca

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